- (1.) These are all appeals by way of special leave under Article 136 of the Constitution against the common judgment of the Patna High Court in Death Reference No.12/2007 and Criminal Appeals (DB) Nos. 1282, 1308, 1318, 1327, 1345, 1354 of 2007. FACTS
(2.) The facts are that a typed report was lodged by Mohan Rajak, Deputy Superintendent of Police (East), Muzaffarpur (for short 'the informant') on 05.12.1994 at 22.10 hours (10.10 p.m.) at PS Sadar, District Muzaffarpur (East), which was treated as FIR. The prosecution case in the FIR briefly was as follows: On the night of 04.12.1994, certain unknown criminals had murdered Shri Kaushlendra Kumar Shukla @ Chhotan Shukla and his associates at NH-28 and the post mortem on Chhotan Shukla and the other deceased persons was done on 05.12.1994 at the SKM College Hospital. The supporters of Chhotan Shukla belonging to the Bihar Peoples Party gathered in large numbers at the hospital. Considering the possibility of breakdown of law and order, the officers of the civil and police administration remained present with armed force and lathi force at the hospital. After the post mortem, the dead bodies were taken in a procession to the house of Chhotan Shukla. The procession was led by Arun Kumar Singh, Ramesh Thakur, Shashi Shekhar Thakur, Ram Babu Singh, Harendra Kumar, Vijay Kumar Shukla @ Munna Shukla and others and was escorted by the officers of the civil and police administration. When the procession reached the house of Chhotan Shukla, Anand Mohan, MLA, and Lovely Anand, M.P., and others who were present there, offered flowers to the dead body of Chhotan Shukla. At about 3.30 p.m., the dead body of Chottan Shukla was taken in a procession to his ancestral house in village Jalalpur under Lalganj Thana in Vaishali district where about 5000 people gathered. Thereafter, the procession was led by Anand Mohan, Lovely Anand, Professor Arun Kumar Singh, Akhlak Ahmad, Harender Kumar, Rameshwar Wiplavi and others and they were all in different vehicles. Anand Mohan and Lovely Anand were sitting in their Contessa car. An Ambassador car and a white coloured Gypsy were moving in front of the procession. When the procession reached the Bhagwanpur Chowk, the dead body of Chottan Shukla was kept for a while and Anand Mohan, Lovely Anand and Professor Arun Kumar Singh gave speeches instigating the crowd to take revenge of the murder of Chhotan Shukla and others by murder and to teach the administration a lesson if it created any hurdle. After listening to the speeches, the people became aggressive. The procession then moved from Bhagwanpur Chowk towards Ram Dayal Nagar through the National Highway. At about 4.15 p.m. when the procession came near Khabra Village on the National Highway, the shouts "Maro Maro" were heard from the midst of the procession. When the informant along with other officers reached the place from where the shouts were being heard, they found that on the right hand side of the road the Ambassador car of the District Magistrate, Gopalganj, G. Krishnaiyyah (coming from the opposite direction) had turned turtle and the District Magistrate was lying on the ground. They also saw Anand Mohan, Lovely Anand, Professor Arun Kumar Singh and some others were loudly provoking Bhutkun Shukla (brother of Chhotan Shukla) to kill the District Magistrate and take revenge. Thereafter, Bhutkun Shukla drew out a revolver from his waist and fired three shots and then escaped into the crowd. The District Magistrate got wounded. Looking at the gravity of the situation, the Sub-Divisional Officer (East) ordered lathi charge and the police and other officers present started charging lathi at the crowd. The District Magistrate, Gopalganj, was sent in a Gypsy to the SKM College Hospital for treatment. Information was sent through wireless to the District Headquarters of Vaishali District about the incident. In the meantime, the assailants fled to Hajipur and the informant and the Sub-Divisional Officer (East) chased the assailants and reached Hajipur where they found 15 persons including Anand Mohan and Lovely Anand caught by the Hajipur police. All the 15 persons were arrested and their vehicles were seized. After the informant came back to Muzaffarpur, he got information that the District Magistrate, Gopalganj, died at the SKM College Hospital.
(3.) Pursuant to the FIR, investigation was carried out by the police and a charge-sheet was filed against 36 accused persons. The learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Muzaffarpur, committed the case to the Sessions Court. The Sessions Court framed charge under Section 147 and Sections 302/149 of the Indian Penal Code (for short 'the IPC') against all the 36 accused persons (A-1 to A-36) for being members of unlawful assembly with the common object of committing the murder of the District Magistrate, Gopalganj, G. Krishnaiyyah, (for short 'the deceased') as well as the charge under Section 307/149 IPC for being a member of the unlawful assembly with the common object of attempting to commit murder of the photographer, the bodyguard and the driver of the deceased. All the 36 accused persons were also charged for the offence under Sections 302/109 for abetting the commission of the murder of the deceased. Anand Mohan, Lovely Anand and Professor Arun Kumar Singh (A-1, A-2 and A-3 respectively) were further charged under Sections 302/114 IPC.;